This is a continuation of the goofy dance Stephen started when he found out I was home early.

This is my granddaughter Gabryale bonding with me. I was trying to tickle her belly and she wanted to get away. Of course, she kept coming back for more.

I work evenings and don’t get to see Stephen a lot. Here is his reaction to me coming home early enough to see him one night.

This is just a quick clip of Gabryale enjoying a tasty beverage.

Image by Image Editor via Flickr

When we were kids, my mother would buy me and my brother educational toys. Not just games that helped us with reading and writing, but things like erector sets, rock tumblers, chemistry sets, this thing that taught us about electricity and circuitry, magnets, etc. Plus, we always seemed to have a microscope or telescope around the house.

Even though neither of us went into careers that had anything to do with engineering, geology, chemistry, physics, biology or anything like that, I’m glad we were at least exposed to things like that as kids. Stephen knows how to use computers, but I wonder if I am not limiting his potential by not getting him the type of things my mom got for us. This is something that I have to think about.

thousand
difficult
I’ve
describe
you’ll
separate
according
throughout
variety
particular
column
experiment
knowledge
original
indeed
chief
represent
develop
twenty
familiar
community
electricity
experience
purpose

When I asked him about the words, he didn’t remember where they came from, but he knew them all with no hesitation. I wanted him to take them to his teacher and let her know that I approve of these words for him, but for some reason he didn’t want to do that. I’m pretty sure it is because he didn’t want to be insulting. Like my brothers and father, my son has the ability to not say stupid and insulting things to people. Unfortunately, I don’t have that ability.

Personally I don’t think this list of words should be given to every first grader, but Stephen isn’t like most first graders. I used to work in a learning lab for adults returning to school after a long time (sometimes decades) and there were a bunch of computerized tests the students would take to determine their reading and learning levels. I always thought there should be something like for school age children.

While I don’t think it would be a good idea to take Stephen and put him in a higher grade the way the system is current configured, I would love to see the first month or so of the school year devoted to this sort of placement testing. After that the students could be grouped according to learning ability. Age would also be factored in because we don’t want slow teenagers in the same class with quick preteens. Despite the same learning ability, the maturity level might be drastically different.

I just wish I had the time and the knowledge to go the homeschooling route, but the main drawback with that would be Stephen developing stronger social skills. I know where my weaknesses are.

Hint: Not me.